Alischer Usmanov is considered to be one of Vladimir Putin’s closest collaborators.
German prosecutors and police have proceeded this Wednesday to register the properties of the Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alischer Usmanov in this country as suspected of tax fraud and the violation of the sanctions imposed against Russia by the West after the invasion of Ukraine.
More than 250 judicial officers and officials from the Federal Criminal Investigation Office (BKA) proceeded from the early hours of the day to search and seize documents in twenty-four real estate objects in the federal states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.
Very close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a figure on the list of Russian citizens sanctioned by the European Union for the war in Ukraine, Usmanov is being investigated for avoiding paying taxes in Germany, despite regularly residing in this country since 2014. usually in a luxurious villa in the Bavarian town of Rottach-Egern, next to Lake Tegernsee and near Munich, where numerous billionaires from all over the world live.
The Munich II Prosecutor’s Office has reported that the raid is directed against a Russian citizen and four other people. The newspaper ‘Bild’ reveals that the oligarch’s three residences in Germany, worth more than 21 million euros, are guarded by a private surveillance service with armed security guards. Apparently those guards are paid with funds from Usmanov’s accounts in Germany, despite the fact that the German authorities have ordered them frozen due to sanctions.
In addition, he is accused, along with the other four suspects, of collaborating in the violation of the sanctions imposed against Russia. ‘Spiegel Online’ highlights that the three residences listed in the name of Usmanov in Rottach-Egern have been registered. He adds that the tax authorities accuse him of defrauding between 2014 and 2022 no less than 555 million euros for non-payment of personal income tax and other taxes. He is also suspected of money laundering and violating Germany’s export laws.
Seized properties
Usmanov fled in March, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, from Bavaria to Uzbekistan. His properties in the European Union, three villas and a luxury yacht, among other things, were seized for supporting the Putin regime. His luxury residence in Bavaria is still owned by the oligarch, but he cannot rent or sell it.
Born in 1953 in Chust, in present-day Uzbekistan, his fortune is estimated at $14 billion. He owns metallurgical and steel consortiums, as well as stakes in telecommunications and internet companies. He also had a high participation in the English football club Arsenal.
Usmanov was included in the list of Russian citizens sanctioned by the EU shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began. The Brussels authorities consider him an “oligarch especially favored by Putin” and belongs to a circle of Russian businessmen who “have been entrusted with the administration of financial flows”, a function in which he has served as a “straw man”. to Putin. Usmanov naturally denies all these accusations.
Coinciding with the registration, the luxury yacht ‘Dilbar’, apparently registered in the name of a sister of Usmanov and seized by the German authorities after the start of the war in Ukraine, has been transferred last night from the port of Hamburg that of Bremen by the shipyards where he was carrying out a revision at the time of his intervention.
Built by the German shipyards Lürssen for some 600 million dollars, the ‘Dibar’ has a length of 156 meters, with a 25-meter pool and two heliports. With 15,500 gross registered tons she is considered the largest yacht in the world. The transfer, carried out with the engine stopped and with the help of tugboats, was carried out for technical reasons, since the yacht occupied a dock that the shipyards needed for the work of her with other ships. The BKA stressed that, since the seizure of her by the German authorities on the basis of sanctions against Russia, the luxury ship “cannot be sold, rented or mortgaged.”
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